WD My Passport detection problem

Hello,

I have been using my WD My Passport portable hard drive for nearly four years without a problem whatsoever. Yesterday, it accidentally fell about 3 ft on my hardwood floor. There is no sign of any external damage. When I plug in the HD into the USB drive of my laptop, its light blinks continuously and I hear beeps for about a minute (I never heard this before). The following lists what is happening:
1. I don’t see the My Passport drive letter in Windows Explorer as before.
2. I see “WD My Passport” under Device Manager.

I tried the following:
a. Start --> Run ---> “diskmgmt.msc” and see “Disk 1 Unknown Not Initialized”. I Right Click on Disk 1 Properties and see “This device is working properly” under General tab.
b. Right clickInitialize Disk, but get the message “The request could not be performed because of I/O device error”.

One of your Q&A suggested the following to rectify the problem:
• uninstall “USB Mass Storage Device” under Device Manager ==> Universal Serial Bus Controllers
• then “Scan for Hardware Changes”

Please confirm if this is safe to correct the problem.
OR
Is there any other procedure?

Thanks.